Stu Jenks' Fezziwig Press

“Michael Doll, Aspen Wood, Colorado” © Stu Jenks 2019 [Extended Family Series]

“Michael Doll, Aspen Wood, Colorado” © Stu Jenks 2019, 55 inches tall.

Price: $195, shipping included in the price. Simply contact me via my email address at [email protected] or Facebook message me, if you would like to purchase one of my pieces. Payments can be made with Paypal, Venmo or credit card with Square. All pieces are signed with its title, and can be hung from the wall. Love y'all, Stu.

 

Michael is one of my oldest and closest friends. We have known each for over 36 years. We talk often on the phone and before COVID, we would break bread together. Yet now I'm in Greensboro, NC and he's in Tucson, so no dinners or lunches for a while but I pray, after COVID has passed, and I'm back in Tucson for a visit, we can eat at The Cup at the Hotel Congress, and laugh, joke, and tell a few lies.

Micheal has helped many men get clean and sober over the decades, sponsored some, mentored others, listened intently to their pains and confusions, and helped these men find some sense of serenity and peace as they progress in their sobriety. He really has devoted his life to helping others, particularly those in Cocaine Anonymous, on both a local level as well as on the World Service level.

Now I'm fully aware that I'm violated a Tradition or two talking about my friend in regards to his commitment to his recovery and the recovery of others. We are not supposed to put on airs regarding our recovery. We are simply supposed to be men among men, and that too much arrogance and ego are sometimes deadly to one's recovery, but I'm not worried about that regarding Michael. He is a pretty humble guy, nor am I concerned that he'll drink or use over me saying a few nice things about him.

Sometimes I think, due to all of us being publicly anonymous, true achievement and sacrifice go unnoticed and unknown to others outside of our circles.

I simply want to sing Michael praises for all that he has done, and for all he has helped in C.A. over the last 35 plus years. He's not a saint, but he's pretty close to it.

I look forward to our next phone conversation, Michael. And when we have lunch in person again, post-COVID, I'm buying this time, hucklebuck.

I love ya, man.

 

#michaeldoll, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries

Fine Art Walking Sticks By Stu.

For those of you who know me, you know that I like to walk. A lot. A lot a lot. Hiking hither and yon, happily up high desert hills and down rocky western valleys. Then in October of 2018, my wife and I moved to North Carolina. (I've since returned to Tucson. The short story? I couldn't find work. Financially strapped I became. My wife is still there, surrounded by family. She and I hope to reunite soon. We miss each other terribly.) Though I traded cactus and high desert for beech trees by still waters, and rolling hills they call mountains there, I continued walking. And walking.

As a kid and a young man in North Carolina, I marveled, as I strode through Southern forests, at those small spiral trees, that became beautifully deformed, because vines choked them into those shapes. Soon after I arriving back in the South last year, I saw such a spiral tree while hiking beside a creek. The tree was dying now. I cut down its ailing trunk. I took it home and I began to make a walking stick out of it (Or wizard's staff perhaps, since it came in at over 61 inches tall.) It took grinding and whittling and sanding and oiling. It took a long time. It turned out well. But one stick just wasn't enough. I want to make more spiral walking sticks. I went hunting for them, work gloves in my back pocket, a small saw in my hand. I hunted spiral trees like a sportsman stalks a deer. I learned about different types of wood: Hornbeam, a low tree but very hard, where I spied many a spiral; Red and Black Oaks, tough carving but beautifully red when finished with Tung oil; Beech wood, almost too soft at times to carve but lovely none the least, either with or without a spiral. I learned about grinders and sandpaper and steel wool and the very best of oils.

I got a BFA in Studio Art at Carolina in 1979, in sculpture, ceramics and weird conceptual art. I was a half-ass sculptor back then but not a terrible photographer or art filmmaker, but I had no steady vision, little discipline, no patience. But now, I seem to have the patience for hours of carving and sanding. OK. I'm not always patient, but I am practicing the artistic adage of "You must be in love with the process of making art, otherwise you will eventually stop doing it." Mike Cindric, my art professor at UNC, taught me that. I love the carving with my sharp pocket knife, the grinding with a soft wheel before sanding, the 220 grade sandpaper and the final 400 grade, then the oiling, one coat, two coats, up to four coats, depending on if I want a glossy or matte finish, and then the final polishing with super fine steel wool.

I've become a sculptor again. A pretty good one this time, if I do say so myself.

Then I moved back to Arizona in April. I brought my stock of hardwood sticks with me. There is no Hornbeam, no Red Oak, no Beech trees here, but there are lovely Cottonwood and Sycamore trees in the washes with their bright white wood, Aspen trees way up high in those mountains, and Saguaro ribs down below. And a friend or two are now gifting me their old sticks to carve. Isn't that nice? Not many spirals trees here but sweet, strong sticks nonetheless.

So on my website, there will be fine art walking sticks for sale. Most will be expensive but some of the simpler designs will be cheaper, around $125 or so. I don't need to tell you they are one of a kind, unique in the truest sense of the word, made with love and that-patience-thing-I-mentioned, finished as finely as I can possibly make them.

Not to be too highfalutin, but these are more sculptures than walking sticks. Signed on the bottom. Cataloged and photographed. Sure, you can use most of them to balance your stride on the trail, but I envision these pieces leaning against living room walls as much as helping you climb the next big hill.

Lastly, if you are in Arizona, it's much easier to buy them by coming by my studio (contact me at [email protected] for the location.) or me bringing them to your place. They are expensive to ship, but I will ship them. And you can pay me via Paypal, using [email protected] or at my store at www.stujenks.org

So that's my story. Look for more sticks up here over time. I'll mark ones that have sold and I'll put up my new sticks as soon as they are finished.

Keep your lamps trimmed and burning, y'all. And as always, thank you for your financial and emotional support over the years.

Love, light and luck,

Stu

 

 

Beech Tree "Y" Stick, 54.25 inches, North Carolina. Price: $150.

 

 

Red Oak Spiral Stick, 61 inches, North Carolina. Price: $175. Sold.

 

 

Soft Beech Spiral Stick, 67.5 inches, North Carolina. Price: $200. Sold.

 

 

Saguaro Rib Stick, 56.75 inches, Arizona. Price: $100.

 

 

Hornbeam Skin Spiral Stick, 58.5 inches, North Carolina. Price $250. Sold.

 

 

The First Spiral Hornbeam, 61.5 inches, North Carolina. Price: $700.00

 

Crooked Hornbeam, 47 inches, North Carolina. Price: $175. Sold.

 

 

Aspen Scar, 54.5 inches, Colorado. Price: $125.

 

 

Tall Aspen, 71 inches, Colorado. Price: $125

 

 

Cottonwood Crook, 59 inches, Arizona: Price: $150.

 

 

Saguaro Little "Y", 66.5 inches, Arizona. Price: $125.

 

 

Aspen "S", 54 inches, Colorado. Price: $125. Sold.

 

 

Saguaro Split, 66.5 inches, Arizona. Price: $150. Sold.

 

 

Saguaro Tall Curve, 68 inches, Arizona. Price: $150.

 

 

Spotted Hornbeam, 56 inches, North Carolina. Price: $200. Sold.

The Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair Installation at Tohono Chul Park

As part of the Dia De Los Muertos show at Tohono Chul Park in Tucson, The Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair Installation is up and ready to go. The opening is Thursday, August 24 at 5:30 p.m.. The show runs until November 8th. Thanks so much to James and Karen for allowing me to be part of this show.

And this post goes out to all those folk who live outside of Southern Arizona, so you all can see and enjoy the piece too. To read the artist's statement for the piece, just click on this link.

Again, thank you everyone for your financial and emotional support this summer. It's been a tough one for me and for many. You all have helped more than you know.

The Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair Installation (2012-2017)

The Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair Installation (2102-2017) by Stu Jenks.

This installation will be part of the upcoming Dia de los Muertos show at Tohono Chul Park, in Tucson, Arizona from August 24th, until early November. I am thrilled to bring this installation to the world for the very first time at Tohono Chul. Many thanks to James Schaub and Karen Hayes for making it all possible.

 

        My sister Pamela Jenks has been dead six years now. Died of breast cancer at age 62. I miss her. Not all the time, but from time to time. I certainly don’t miss the selfish, mean, loud drunk she was most of her adult life, but I surely miss the considerate, kind, loving woman she became the last six months before she died. Thanks, Pamela, for being the sister I always wanted to have, those last few weeks.
        From soon after Pamela’s death in 2011 to the present, I’ve been taking my sister’s toddler rocking chair hither and yon. Due to her alcoholism and her general fear of the big bad world, Pamela Jenks was a virtual shut-in the last couple of decades of her life, living in my family’s falling-down old home place in Raleigh, North Carolina. I first took Pamela’s Baby Rocking Chair out and about, when I drove it and me to my sister’s grave in rural Virginia in 2012. Since then, with only a few breaks, I’ve photographed the PBRC all over the place, from the streets of New York City, to the hills of San Francisco, from the wilds of Sonora, Mexico to the snows of Utah, from the Atlantic Ocean in South Carolina to Swami’s Beach in Encinitas, California. I’ve taken Pamela’s chair to where she was too afraid to go.
        Then last winter, something unexpected happened. My sister’s chair wasn’t so much about her anymore. It became my chair. It represented me as well as my sister, about my journey through life, not so much about my memories of her and of my deceased mother and father. The chair is me, and judging from all the patrons over the years who have bought prints of the PBRC, the chair has become you as well.
        This summer has been financially and emotionally tough for me. Hell, it’s tough all over, but creating this installation has put a number of things in their proper perspective.
        1) Pamela’s dead. I am not.
        2) I’m still making stuff, recording music, typing words. Pamela’s ain’t doing no cross stitch no mo.
        And 3) I have friends and family that I love very much and they care for me too. They can talk to me and hold me and hug me and I can do the same back. Pamela, however, is in the grave, unable to humanly love and touch me, and she can’t be touched or hugged back or listened to.
        But maybe that’s her over there, skipping through the trees, a teenager having her whole life ahead of her, not seeing the future alcoholism, the desperate loneliness, the checkered job history, and the resentful bitterness that made a cold bed for her to lie in every night.
        Maybe her light-filled spirit is right here, right now, right over there, free and happy.
        What did you just say Pamela?
        “I’m fucking proud of you, bro,” says the angel ghost off my left shoulder. “I fucking love ya.”
        “Thanks, Pamela,” I whisper to myself. “I love you too.”

 

 

        To read the Pamela’s Baby Rocking Chair book, you can buy the e-book on Amazon and on other sites, or listen to or buy the audio book on iTunes, or Spotify, or if you want to buy the real live paperback book book, contact me at www.stujenks.org. The second Pamela’s Baby Rocking Chair book, A Chair In The Wilderness, will be released sometime in 2018.
        Have a blessed day, y’all.

 

Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair photographs and other images from the last few weeks...

"Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair, Wellton, Arizona" (c) 2017 Stu Jenks.

 

"Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair,  West of Skid Row, Los Angeles, California" (c) 2017 Stu Jenks.

 

"Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair, Lipan Point, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona" (c) 2017 Stu Jenks.

 

"Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair, Davidson Canyon, Arizona" (c) 2017 Stu Jenks.

 

"Forgive Me, My Heart, Eastern Colorado" (c) 2017 Stu Jenks.

 

"Four Cranes, Whitewater Draw, Arizona" (c) 2017 Stu Jenks.

 

"Kara Walker's Angel, Broad Museum, Los Angeles, California" (c) photograph by Stu Jenks 2017.

 

"Achilles and The Tortoise by Mark Tansey, Broad Museum, Los Angeles, California" (c) Photograph by Stu Jenks 2017.

 

"Mary Magdelene, St. Dominic and  St. Ann, detail of tapestry at Cathedral of Our Lady Of The Angels, Los Angeles, California" (c) Photograph by Stu Jenks 2017.

 

"Little Jesus On The Cross, Old Sonoita Highway, Arizona" (c) 2017 Stu Jenks.

 

"Cross Above The Old Sonoita Highway, Arizona" (c) 2017 Stu Jenks.

 

"Cathy's Fault Cyanotype, Dripping Springs, Arizona" (c) 2017 Stu Jenks.

 

"Winkleman Sunset, Arizona" (c) 2017 Stu Jenks.

 

"Breaks Both Ways, Swami's Beach Before Dawn, Encinitas, California" (c) 2017 Stu Jenks.

 

"Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair, Blue Grand Canyon, Arizona" (c) 2107 Stu Jenks.

 

"Forgive Me..."

 
"Forgive Me: Eastern Colorado" (c) 2014 Stu Jenks.

Favorite film of last year? Nebraska.

A free ePub download of The Transpersonal Papers (1861-2010) by Stu Jenks.

 

Download The Transpersonals Papers by Stu Jenks epub (c) 2013 Stu Jenks.

I was just at a Starbuck's buying an Egg Nog Latte, when a homeless woman came in and asked the clerk, "Do you have anything for just a dollar?"

I'm not struggling like her obviously, but as my father used to say, "It's not what you make but what you spend." And having my own business, Fezziwig Press, costs money and my little company isn't making enough money right now.

So I'm doing an Amanda Fucking Palmer thing. If I don't ask, you don't know to give.

Fezziwig Press and I have been struggling financially for the last year or so. Namely, I'm not quite breaking even, still a few hundred dollars in the red each month, even with my part time counseling gig and all. I'm making some sales with image rights, book sales, music sales, etc, but not like I did five to ten years ago. So I'm putting out the artistic begging bowl. And I'm giving shit away.

The Transpersonal Papers (1861-2010) was released in 2011. Cost a boat load to produce but I only sold seven ebook copies. (Thank you to the seven, by the way.) So I'm offering it today, to you all, for free.

If you like The Transpersonal Papers, or the StuBlog, or my work, I ask that you give a little money to my Paypal account. My log-in is my email address, stujenks at gmail dot com, spelled like you normally would type it. Donate to my Paypal, or buy some books, or send money to P.O.Box 161, Tucson, AZ 85702. Whatever you like. No expectations, but if I don't ask, you don't know. And of course, if you don't give, that's perfectly all right too. We're all tight these days, don't I know. Or you just might not like my stuff that much. It's all good, as the kids say. Except for my ever-shrinking savings account.

I hope you enjoy the photographs and the stories in this book. Perhaps someday I'll have enough money to print it as a large coffee table book, like it was originally envisioned. Perhaps not, but you can have it right now for free. Enjoy.

And just download the Adobe Digital Editions free software to see and read The Transpersonal Papers: (1861-2010), if you don't already have it on your computer.

Thanks, y'all, and have a Happy New Year.

Love and light,

Stu

Download The Transpersonal Papers by Stu Jenks epub (c) 2013 Stu Jenks.

"Colorado Dystopia"

"Colorado Dystopia" (c) 2012 Stu Jenks

All 8 1/2" x 11" A/P archival pigment prints by Stu Jenks for $25, shipping, handling and taxes included...

Image: "Queen Esther Baptist Church, Lancaster, Virginia" (c) 2011 Stu Jenks (Just down River Road from Victoria's house. Love that luscious red carpet. And for you nocturnals out there, it was handheld. Rare for me.)

In this time of making photos on iPhones and Macbook Pros and only looking on screens, I forget I'm a old-school guy. I make a 8 1/2 x 11 work print on archival paper of EVERY image I make. EVERY one. It's the only way, for me, to accurately check for color shift, density, composition, etc. I really like my iPad screen but it's no way to make a good print.

And I have hundreds, if not thousands, of work prints artist proofs at my studio.

If you see an image of mine on The StuBlog or on my old website or on the Fezziwig Press Store or in any of my books, there's a beautiful small print in a box somewhere, perhaps with your name on it. And since I'm organized, I can find it.

Many of you can't afford my larger prints. I understand. I don't have an extra 50 or 100 lying around either. But I do have an extra $20 for stuff I really like.

So if you see an image of mine on any of my sites or in any of my books and you want it, it's yours for $25, shipping, handling and tax included. (I believe in paying taxes, sales and otherwise.)

Just email me at my facebook page or through the StuBlog or at [email protected], and tell me what print you would like or just pull the jpeg and send that to me.

I was just watching the Tarhells lose today in basketball, working on images at my computer when I thought, 'I bet people don't realize I have boxes of work prints here.'

You all do now.

Love and light,

Stu

p.s. Ignore the catagories belows. The computer went wacky. Another reason why I prefer a print in the hand as opposed to an image in The Cloud.

Nampeyo (1860?-1942) and Rhonda Holy Bear (1959-

"When I first began to paint, I used to go to the ancient village and pick up pieces of pottery and copy the designs. That is how I learned to paint. But now, I just close my eyes and see designs and I paint them." - Nampeyo.

 

It's worth getting off the Interstate or taking a cab from the airport if you have a three hour layover or simply worth a special trip.

Denver Art Museum's American Indian Art Collection.

I made my third journey to DAM's Native collection just a couple weeks ago. It has a wonderful permanant collection and newer work by living Native artists they rotates in and out.

Included in this post is some work by Nampeyo, the famous Hopi potter and by Rhonda Holy Bear, the Cheyenne River Sioux artist, plus a detail image of Standing Bear's tipi and an Edward Curtis photograph of a Hopi potter.

At each visit, I see something old that I knew I loved and something new I didn't know existed. Isn't that what a great museum visit is all about?

So visit the Denver Art Museum when ever you have the chance.

Oh, and yea, they have some pretty good stuff by some white folk too.

All images (c) Stu Jenks 2012 except for the Curtis of course (but I did take the pic of his photo. And a friend just told me it is of Nampeyo herself. Great image. A great potter.)